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Don't Get Blind Sided by a Car Crash

For years, State Farm Insurance has tracked the most dangerous intersections in America.

For officers, the deadliest intersection may be the one they're approaching with lights and sirens—and never more so than when another black and white is on an intersecting path with them.

The inherent dangers of such a scenario are obvious: Both vehicle operators are approaching the intersection with lights and sirens; each expects the other driver to yield; neither can discriminate between their own siren and that of another patrol car.

It's a recipe for disaster, and occasionally paths do cross with tragic results.

Unlike capsized stoves, exploding tires, and fluke traffic hazards that have killed other officers, it's a hardly a unique problem and there is no shortage of names of officers occupying the National Law Enforcement Officers Memorial as a result.

Los Angeles County Deputy Sheriff Gregory L. Low and Dep. Charles Plumleigh were responding to a burglary in progress call when the patrol cars they were driving collided. At least one of the patrol vehicles was traveling at 90 miles per hour at the time of impact. Both deputies were killed.

Kelli L. Lambert, a police officer with the Wellston (Ohio) Police Department, was responding to an emergency call when her patrol car collided with another patrol car at an intersection. Officer Lambert was ejected from her patrol car and killed.

Baltimore Officer Anthony Byrd was a victim of being in the wrong place at the wrong time. Officer Byrd was en route to the station house when his patrol car was struck by another patrol car responding to a domestic disturbance call. He was subsequently transported to a local hospital where he succumbed to his injuries.

Gary, Ind., Police Officer Benjamin Wilcher also succumbed to injuries sustained when his patrol car collided with another patrol car, this time during a vehicle pursuit. Again, it was an intersection that played a pivotal role in the collision.

It's not just our own we have to worry about. "Emergency vehicles" includes fire and ambulance vehicles, as well. A Georgia police officer died of injuries sustained when his patrol car collided with an ambulance while both were responding to a murder scene.

I've chewed ass on deputies that I've caught pushing the envelope. I recognized their inordinate pride in anticipating problems and having excellent reaction time when they occurred, and knew that these deputies were destined for rude wakeup calls in the form of traffic collisions. It wasn't piety that prompted me. No, I knew this because I'd been guilty of the same stupid, arrogant ignorance that found me over-driving, crashing, and getting my otherwise uninjured hand bitch-slapped.

Unless they're bucking for a duty-related retirement, officers rarely decide to have an accident. Usually, it's due to some unanticipated factor: oil on the roadway, a signal that changes sooner than they anticipated, and yes, the blind intersection that didn't allow them to see as far as they needed to avoid a collision.

Saying "these things happen" is B.S. There is never an excuse for an officer over-driving through an intersection and getting himself, another officer, or a civilian killed. And when ass-chewings aren't enough, police departments try other means of getting cops to drive more safely. This includes everything from sending officers to remedial EVOC training to raising the bail schedules for preventable traffic collisions.

Yet, I'm sad to see that these crashes still happen.

Our profession is dangerous enough without placing ourselves in further jeopardy. So the next time you roll code three through a four-way, make sure that the only things that intersect are the streets themselves.

Author

Former associate editor of Police Magazine and a retired patrol supervisor and investigator with the Los Angeles Sheriff's Department, Sgt. Dean Scoville has received multiple awards for government service.

Former associate editor of Police Magazine and a retired patrol supervisor and investigator with the Los Angeles Sheriff's Department, Sgt. Dean Scoville has received multiple awards for government service.

It's easy to look at the landscape of public opinion in America and come to the conclusion that the majority of people in the United States despise the police. However, the vitriolic anti-police sentiment demonstrated by a small number of the public, the press, and the political class is not an accurate reflection of how the majority of Americans feel about their law enforcement officers.

Following the murder of Corporal Ronil Singh, elected officials and law enforcement leaders across California are pointing to legislation friendly to illegal immigrants as the reason an illegal immigrant was able to murder the officer in cold blood.

Despite downward numbers of recruits seeking to join the ranks of law enforcement and increasing indications of de-policing across the country, we can—if we look hard enough—find countless bright spots for American policing in 2018.

Officer safety is obviously paramount—and should never be jeopardized by allowing a potentially dangerous subject who should be handcuffed to retain use of their hands—but weigh into your tactics the fact that communicating with a deaf subject who is handcuffed becomes significantly more difficult.

Foot patrol is the essence of community policing—officers on foot create opportunities for the public to connect with their police (and vice versa). Conversely, when officers are wrapped in two tons of metal and plastic, that opportunity for real connection is essentially lost.

Too many officers are driving themselves into their graves—turning their cars into their coffins—in single-vehicle crashes. According to ODMP, there were 34 such preventable duty deaths in a three-year span from 2016 to the present. It's impossible to know how many officers were seriously injured but survived single-vehicle crashes during that time period. Something must be done.

While empirical data doesn't exist—at least to my knowledge—on lost productivity due to injuries sustained during foot pursuits, anecdotal evidence suggests that medical leave following such activities is significant enough to give some thought to the matter.

There is certainly benefit to being current on events involving the people you consider family—your brothers and sisters across the country with whom you share a special bond—as well as the world at large. However, it's also important—and extremely beneficial—to spend some time completely disconnected from the job. This is a lesson I recently re-learned.

I've talked with officers who have lost a colleague to suicide—as well as many widows of officers who died by suicide—and just about everyone has said that the warning signs were there before tragedy struck. They just didn't put the pieces together until it was too late. Let's all do a better job of helping officers in crisis.

It's somewhat disappointing that it takes an act of evil for the pure good in people to come bubbling visibly to the surface, but when the deep-down-good does show itself, we are reminded that it's been there all along—it's just been hiding beneath the waterline.

Unbeknownst to many in the public—but well-known to pretty much all of the men and women who stand behind the thin blue line that protects them—police officers have a tremendous sense of humor. It's time to take a little break from heavy subjects and have a little fun.

I've long held the belief that a year-long civics class should be a requirement nationwide. Further, these classes should include more than just the basic structure of government. Curriculum should incorporate Constitutional Law and Supreme Court cases related to the Fourth and Eighth amendments, as well as police policies, procedures, and practices.

Very few people who get into teaching have the mental, emotional, or physical fortitude to use deadly force when under imminent threat. However, every teacher should receive some level of active shooter response training—everyone should have at least some idea of what to do in an attack.